2 Connect iPhone to a USB 2.0 port on your Mac or PC using the dock and cable that came with iPhone. (Don’t connect iPhone to the USB port on your keyboard—it does not have enough power.) iTunes opens automatically.

Why would Apple do this? No one talks this way. What are they getting out of this grammatical detail? At lunch a few of us discussed it and the only thing we could come up with is that it anthropomorphizes the iPhone, and that some how makes it more, uh, human or something. I admit, it’s kind of weak. Any other ideas?

The iPhone would be a <>product<>, something that you can just hold in your hand. iPhone is <>an experience<>, akin to a blend of hardware, software and service. Oh yes, it’s definitely giving it a personality, and it sounds way cooler too 🙂

It may be trademark issues. There are all kinds of corporate guidelines about how to refer to a trademarked product in order to not weaken its trademark protections, in particular that the trademark must not be used as a noun but as an adjective.“The iPhone” makes iPhone a noun; “iPhone” by itself could be argued to be an adjective with an implicit noun.(don’t look at me, I don’t come up with this crap; go talk to legal)

Reminds me of that line from “The Good Shepherd”:<>I remember a senator once asked me. When we talk about CIA why we never use the word “the” in front of it. And I asked him, do you put the word “the” in front of God?<>

Car companies have done this for ages. It’s not “a Corvette” or “The Camry”, it’s “Corvette” and “Camry”. As far as keeping trademark rights from the scourge of generic status, it’s usually treating the name as a VERB that gets you into real trouble. Behold “to xerox” I personally think getting rid of the pronoun is designed to shock us a little bit and convey that this isn’t just ANY product

Actually, I have found that adding the definite article to the beginning of product names increases the joy of saying it. For example, I’ll say “I was watching the ESPN last evening, and…”. Far funnier than simply saying “watching ESPN”.-Ken (co-host of “The Definite Article”, a defunct podcast from KDUP radio in Portland, OR)

Yup, they have done the same thing with the iPod, but with the iPhone it creeps me out a little. No doubt its a marketing thing as someone mentioned. You know, the iphone experience vs. just a thing, but still its kind of creepy when you practice that nomenclature !! It gives it a “living” quality of sorts. Its like we’re talking about it as an entity rather than a product. Thus, I refuse to refer to the iPhone as iPhone. I’m not some stupid drone who just mouths along with whatever Apple thinks is the right way to refer to it when I think its creepy. I will get my greedy little hands on one of those thingies as soon as I can :), but refer to it the way Apple marketing wants me to ? F*ck them. Now that IS the true spirit of iPhone, I mean *the* iPhone !

>Why the difference?One’s a name for a specific instance (your Safari is the same “thing” as the Safari on any other Mac), the other’s a product (or “category”) name, so the specific instance is different (your iPhone is a different “thing” as somebody else’s, but the same category of things). Apple wants to use iPhone more like a human name to make it feel more personal.>referring to it as simply iPhone is grammatically incorrect. No, it’s not. It’s somewhat weird, because it means iPhone is used like an “instance name” instead of like a “category name,” but it’s correct.

I believe Iván has it right: i.e. that it has to trademark issues and trying to avoid it becoming a <>genericized<> trade-mark by using iPhone as a nounby omitting “the” then iPhone may be more clearly a proper-noun i.e. proper namehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademarkquote: “One risk factor which may lead to genericide is the use of a trademark as a verb, noun, plural or possessive…”I’m no trademark lawyer, so this is just my guess. but coincidentally a newsletter from our lawyers on the very topic of trademarks and brand genericide just arrived in the mail 🙂